It seems to me that all of them are true heroes, Achilles knows what he wants and sacrifices for his lifelong ideal, Hercules completes his tasks perfectly for his destiny, but I appreciate Hector most among them, although he ended in tragedy, with his endless concerns to his family, his honor and his country.
When I look up to the sky, there are so many brilliant deities. How about the normal people? Well, we are not deities, but we have the right to look up the stars, to find the essence of our lives.
Hercules ought to be the king of Thebes, but his place was replaced by his brother for Hera’s tricks. He opts to wade through the difficulties of the twelve tasks, in the end he owns the deities’ blessings and marries the goodness. Achilles’s mother deity wishes his boy could be a normal man who lives in peaceful happiness, but he opts to be a hero with fame paid by the death toll. And Hector, the prince of Troy, Paris’ brother, maybe when he is faced with Achilles, he knows he would die in front of his country’s gate, he accepts his destiny with his steadfast willing.
Hector’s death is only the sacrifice for the deities’ battles. With Athena’s help, Achilles wins the battle and his dead body is spited by Achilles. Nevertheless, he didn’t complain Helen’s arrival, his brother’s stubborn or the injustice of the destinies, he receives these in peace, with bravery and dignity. Just as the end of the film says, “Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die.”
“A man can be can be destroyed but not defeated.” In my opinion, Hercules is a risk-taker, Achilles is a proud warrior, and Hector is a loser in the battle with Achilles, but he also is a winner of the honor. He is dead, but his spirit can be an eternal beacon for those are in despair. Most of us would like to be Hector or Achilles, but predominantly, there is no help of the deities, what we can do is only to redouble efforts and struggle again and again.
Don’t you see Beethoven? This brilliant composer is a deaf, but he creates amounts of classic melodies we can appreciate until today. Don’t you see Sisyphus? The man always pushing the stone uphill with endless sorrow and hopes. Don’t you see the crowds among many millions? All of us seek the values of existing and fight in owns’ ways. Sometimes we need to face the cruelty of life, but don’t forget “The real warrior, dare to face the gloomy life.”
Hector:
Facing the revenge of Archilles, Hector could choose to stay inside the wall and refuse his furious fight. However, he chose another way, wearing his armor and facing Archilles’ challenge.
In the fight, he went all out to face Archilles’ attack even ended up with death. As far as I am concerned, he is a man reflecting the meaning of “a man can be killed but not be defeated”, which is emphasized in Hemingway’s works. He fought for his nation’s glory and his dignity as well as his own dream of fighting with Archilles, the greatest hero. Although he died, he left without shame or pity. That’s why even he was lost in the fight, the people of his nation still honored him very much. So am I.
His life may be short, may be long.
Archilles:
It’s predicted that Archilles would die in the Troy War, but he chose to join it. That’s the way he chose.
In my view, he indeed was a great hero with outstanding ability and extraordinary courage, enjoying the respect and awe from others. However, he was so furious and cruel that he couldn’t control his own temper, which even finally killed himself. Take an inappropriate example, Archilles represents the heroism while Hector symbolizes the collectivism. I’m not about to compare which one is better. To be honest, every way has its own beauty and uniqueness. If Archilles didn’t join the war, we wouldn’t know there was such a hero existing with fury and passion. It also indicates that even the hero has the flaw.
Hercules:
As the son of Zeus, Hercules was a demigod but finally became the god. What he faced was whether to finish the 12 tasks or not, which was assigned from Hera as the torment. He chose to accept the tasks.
In my opinion, he chose to do it with his every effort for his redemption. He was tortured by Hera and got mad to kill his own wife and kid. In order to make redemption for the inner guilt, he chose to accomplish the tasks alone. Not only slaying the Nemean Lion but also cleaning the Augean stables in single day, he finished those works with great effort, much time and even his whole life. He didn’t complain at all but to do it. He is a tough man and keeps the grace under pressure. That’s why he was honored by the folks and became the god when he died. His distinguished accomplishments made him a respectable man. Therefore, he could also purify himself and keep the peace in his heart away from the guilt and crime, instead of escaping from reality and his guilt.
Achilles: he chose not to fight when Agamemnon snatched his female captive. When his best friend was killed, he did not hesitate to take revenge. He is faced with a choice between personal feelings and national affairs, but in fact he always takes his own emotional will as his direction. So I don't think this is a real dilemma.
Hector: he knew he was going to be killed by Achilles, but he chose to fight heroically, putting his life on the back foot for the sake of his family and his country. He is a selfless collectivist. I greatly admire his courage and firm faith
Hercules: as a young man, Hercules is said to have met two goddesses at a fork in the road. The beautiful and inviting goddess of Pleasure promised him unimaginable luxury and comfort and gave him all carnal Pleasure. The simple and humble goddess of virtue told Hercules that she had a long and difficult life on her side, not only with many difficulties, but also with unimaginable pains and sufferings, but that she could achieve real happiness by virtue of her own efforts and achievements for the benefit of mankind. Hercules chose the latter, accomplished 12 heroic feats, endured all kinds of human hardships, and was finally accepted and immortal by the gods. After knowing the two completely different life paths, he still chose the hard one, only because it could bring benefits to mankind. For me, it's hard to willingly choose hardship.
For Hector, a prince of Troy, he had two choices when Achilles wanted to fight with him. One is to reject the fight with Achilles and to stay at the fortress, which can stay him alive at that time. The other is to fight with Achilles, which would risk his life but encourage his troop and defend his country. Clearly, he chose the latter, fighting for his country.
Form his choice, we find that he was quite brave and responsible. For his country and people, he can risk his life. No matter he was dead or not, he can motivate his troop fight for their country. How strong the sense of nation honor he had! How brave the hero he was!
When it comes to Achilles, the leader of the most valiant army in the army groups during Trojan War, he also faced a dilemma. One is to participate in the war, and the other is to keep living peacefully and comfortably. In fact, he had chosen three times. First, he chose to participate in the war for his own honor. Then he changed his mind when he met the priest of RA. Last, he came back the war to revenge for his friend.
From his different choices, we can find his different aspects of personality. His first choice shows that he was a individualist, only fighting for his own honor. It seemed he was a selfish hero. The second choice made him more like a normal young man. He would give up his honor for his beloved girl. The last choice indicated that he was a man who attached much importance to friendship. In conclusion, Achilles is also a hero but different with Hector.
As for Hercules is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman Alcmene with divine power. It is said that he had chosen from 2 different roads. One is to live comfortably with money beyond imagination and the other is to fight for the real happiness by benefiting humans, suffering beyond imagination. He chose the latter.
He was quite brave facing challenges and it indicated that he was a collectivist, who was willing to fight for the whole society. He is selfless. Also, the spirit of facing challenges bravely encourages us that we should face difficulty instead of escaping.
1. Hector:
Even knowing clearly that he was facing the revenge of Archilles with littlt chance to survive, Hector could have chose to stay inside the wall and refuse a aggressive fight, living peacefully for the rest of his life. However, he still insisted to choose another way, wearing his armor to face Archilles’ challenge without any hesitation.
As for me, even though the fight was eventually ended up with his death, he is "a man can be killed but not be defeated”, which is emphasized in Hemingway’s works. Undoubtedly, he is a hero forever.
He fought for the whole nation’s glory and his own dignity as an invincible warrior. Therefore, although he died after the was, his compatriots still honor and admire him even more than before.
In a word, for a hero, his life may be short, or may be long.
2. Archilles:
He chose to join in the Troy War, knowing that he would die for it. Actually no everyone can have such a courage to do it.
As far as I am concerned, he is indeed a great hero with both outstanding ability and extraordinary courage, enjoying the respect and awe from the world. But, on the other hand he was so furious and cruel that he couldn’t control his fractious temper, which led to his own death at last. even for now, losing tempers is definitely a fatal error in various places. Furthermore, if Archilles didn’t join the war at the time, we wouldn’t know that once there was such a hero existing with fury and passion, which implies that even the hero has his flaws. None of us is perfect.
3. Hercules:
As the son of Zeus, Hercules was a demigod but finally became a god. He bravely accepted the 12 tasks assigned by Hera as a torment and kept insisting with amazing perseverance.
From my prespective, he chose to finish the tasks it with every effort for his redemption. He was cruelly tortured by Hera and nearly got mad to kill his beloved wife and kids. Not only slaying the Nemean Lion but cleaning the Augean stables in single day, he finally finished those works with great efforts, countless time and nearly his whole life. He didn’t complain at all but just to do it. Honest speaking, he is a tough man with dignity, which responds for the reason why he is honored by the folks and became the god when he died. His honorable accomplishments made himself a respectable man.
All in all, we need to learn from these rarely-seen heroes.
Everyone will face a dilemma in their life. Each choice represents a completely different life.The person who keeps moving forward is not necessarily a hero, but the person who knows that the road ahead is full of difficulties or even death is also willing to keep moving must be a hero.
For Hector, he didn’t need to have fought for the brother’s stupidity and father’s indulgence.He could leave there with his beloved wife and children and live a happy and beautiful life.But the responsibility to the country in his heart, the love for the people, and his dignity led him to take up arms, put on his armor, and fight for the country.He was very brave and had always defended the country.This spirit made him choose to fight until he died when he faced Archilles' revenge, even if he could shrink behind the wall.From a sensible point of view, Hector ’s choice was not correct. His death caused great losses to the country and had a direct impact on the defeat of the Trojan War. At the same time, his death caused his wife, his child, his family and his friends facing pain and sorrow.But from Hector's point of view, it was his spirit of fearless death and full of responsibility that created the image of his living hero. And this spirit has an unparalleled incentive effect on people, and it is worth remembering with our lives.
For Archilles, He can choose to live a quiet life away from the war, but in the end he rejoins the war in order to avenge his friends.For this, he paid the price of his life. Archilles grew up in the Trojan War. He participated in the war three times, the first time to fight for his honor, the second time to fight for his lover, and the third time to fight for friends. He began to understand why he was fighting and became a synonym for heroes in the process.I think Achilles chose to fight for his friends is very commendable. In the prophecy, he will die in the war. Facing potential death threats, he still chose to avenge his friends.Compared to Hector, Archilles is more free and does not have a heavy sense of responsibility, but his emphasis on friendship and love is very commendable.
Hercule's dilemma is obvious. According to legend, two goddesses provided him with two roads, one is a comfortable and happy life, and the other is a long and difficult road, but this road will benefit mankind.Hercule chose the second path, for which he completed 12 extremely difficult tasks.He has spent almost his entire life to complete these tasks, whether it is killing the giant lion or subduing Hydra, these difficult tasks have not made him shrink back, nor have he regretted. He did these things in silence, devoting his life to mankind.Hercules is a very typical hero. His choice has benefited mankind and made human life better.His behavior may be atonement for the death of his wife and children, but it is undeniable that in the face of those difficult tasks, he never retreated.When knowing that the road ahead is hard, those who are still moving are true heroes.
Everyone longs for happiness and comfort. But when heroes face a dilemma, they face the difficulties. Knowing that the road ahead is dangerous, they will keep going forward, not going backwards.
Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. Facing the challenge of Achilles, he chose to take his own responsibility rather than escape. He guards his country at all times, and he does to defend his country and his dignity. No wonder he was called 'the wall of Troy'. Hector is not only a mortal made by fate and tragedy, love and blood, but also a tragic hero forged from fierce fighting and limited life. He was honed in the war of life and death, showing that even under the most intense conditions are not ready to give up the war of resistance and self-examination of the determination, made for the brutal battle to dedicate all the preparation, which is very moving.
Achilles:
But for Achilles, he faced both revenge for the death of his best friend and his own quest for glory and dignity. Even though he knew he was doomed to die in battle, he still did not want to lead a long and mediocre life, and hoped that history would remember his name. He loved his nation, but when his personal honor and dignity were harmed, the preservation of that honor and dignity came first. Hegel once wrote: Of Achilles we may say that this is a man! The manifold dimensions of the noble personality showed in this man its full richness. He was cruel, strong and brave in the face of war, a strong sense of chivalry and personal honor, selfless care and kindness towards relatives, friends and lovers, and contempt for gods, believing in human will and meaning. He was a living man, a real hero.
Hercules:
Faced with a choice between comfort and misery, Hercules chose the latter.
Hercules is undoubtedly a hero, but also a man of ideals and courage, with a natural sense of honor and pride, never yielding to any difficulties. He is not only powerful but also wise, kind and just. All his life, he kills monsters and evil people for mankind, helps friends, accepts all hardships and finally completes twelve impossible tasks and becomes a true God. I admire him very much for his choice and his life of constantly breaking the limit. It is only by choosing to face his destiny that he finally achieves himself.
Both of them chose duty and destiny, making a significant mark in Greek mythology.